Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 36: Machina (6)

The stairs leading deep into the building were vomiting out a flood of violet bastards.

Ones that looked like me.

More precisely, ones that looked like the AI from MK Corp.

Except for the deadpan expressions and color, they were nearly identical to MK’s AI.

Maybe I should call them cold, machine-faced AI in violet?

Then suddenly, wind blew through, stirring up the ash and dust around us.

The cloud of dirt passed between me and the violet things—

and that’s when something strange happened.

Their forms shimmered, distorted with a buzzing glitch—

as if they weren’t real.

Like they had no physical body.

It was something I’d seen before...

from “I.”

"AI?"

I muttered it under my breath—then slowly shook my head.

Something was off.

Yeah, they didn’t have bodies, and yeah, they looked just like “I”—

but they didn’t feel like it at all.

They were something completely different at their core.

[[[AI?]]]

The violet beings repeated my voice in eerie unison, like an echo.

Only it wasn’t just an echo—it had that crackling digital static layered over it. Twisted. Wrong.

‘?!’

It felt like they were mimicking me.

So I raised my arm—just to test it.

All the violet entities raised their arms in sync.

I lowered mine, and so did they.

Like mirrors.

But this freaky mirror game didn’t last long.

Their expressions started to change.

To something I would never wear.

Expressions full of resentment and malice.

[You.]

[You all.]

[Can’t go.]

[All of you, with us.]

[No escape.]

[Stay here. Forever.]

The sentences came out in fragments—disconnected, like someone stitched together broken pieces.

But the malice was real.

Thick and oozing.

Then, all at once, the violet bastards charged straight at me.

‘They don’t seem to have real bodies... Will an attack even work on them?’

Didn’t matter. I didn’t have time to think it through.

I transformed my still-intact right arm into a blade.

And that’s when shit got weird.

The violet things tried to do the same—tried to copy the blade-arm.

But the results were all kinds of wrong.

‘Ugh, that’s disgusting.’

It looked like a bugged-out glitch in a broken game.

One had its limbs reversed—arms and legs swapped.

Another impaled itself with the blade.

One even grew an extra head instead of a blade.

The closer they got, the more their forms twisted.

The one in front had its neck stretch unnaturally long, writhing like a snake.

[You... I am...]

[Together... Why only you...]

[I too... just like you all...]

I didn’t have the luxury to decipher the madness.

I slashed at the closest violet entity.

And something unexpected happened.

The moment my blade made contact with it, a black orb formed at the point of impact.

A small but powerful sphere—blasted both me and the violet thing backward.

‘An erosion zone?’

A black orb, floating in the air.

A tiny erosion zone, surrounded by crumbling shadows.

The moment the violet entities saw the orb, their eyes gleamed brighter.

They stopped walking.

And started crawling—like snakes.

Their bodies were so mangled, none of them even had limbs in the right place.

But they moved fast.

Faster than my full sprint.

I freaked out and dove into the shadows, like a panicked NPC in a horror game.

‘!!!!!!’

But what waited inside the shadow realm... was worse.

A creature with a mouth.

A mouth so large I couldn’t even comprehend it.

The thing opened wide—wide enough to swallow me whole.

Before I could run, the endless blackness engulfed me.

Total darkness.

I couldn’t see a thing.

And then I heard it.

Not a sound.

Not a voice.

But a whisper directly into my mind.

A deep longing to possess what one was never meant to have.

The sorrow of a bird born without wings, watching others fly.

The tragedy of being born that way.

The whisper carried a strange kind of magic.

It forced me to empathize, to understand—whether I wanted to or not.

‘Yeah. That’s... sad.’

But that’s all it was to me.

Humans are all born with their own limits.

Every existence is different.

That’s the law of this world.

Whether it was a hundred years ago, or now, that hasn’t changed.

The moment I thought that—

an immense force shoved me out of the black space.

Like a body rejecting a foreign object, I was forcefully expelled from the shadow world.

I tumbled across the stone floor, rolling until I finally collapsed flat.

When I opened my eyes,

the violet entities had returned to looking like normal children.

They stared down at me.

And after a long silence, they began... asking each other questions—like a debate.

[Human?] [No.]

[AI?] [Neither.]

[Then what?] [Don’t know.]

[No.] [No.]

The longer their weird debate continued, the more unstable they became.

The violet glow intensified.

Their forms grew more and more abstract.

And in the end, they dissolved into glowing violet particles—

and scattered into the air.

****

Victor drew his submachine gun in a flash and pulled the trigger.

Muzzle flare burst out as bullets ripped forth in rapid succession.

At the same time, he dropped low to the ground and rolled sideways with precision.

Victor’s quick reflexes had been sharpened by years of mercenary work.

A hail of bullets from the priest tore into the ground where Victor had just been, gouging up dirt in relentless sprays.

Dust clouds rose up, and the clatter of spent shells echoed across the open ground of the Machina Cult compound.

Despite his unstable posture, Victor’s shots landed squarely—each bullet struck the priest’s face dead-on.

It was a flawless display of sharpshooting.

But it didn’t matter.

"!!!!"

The bullets bounced off the priest’s face with metallic sparks.

The face that looked human on the surface... was just a metal mask underneath.

His entire body looked like it had been cybernetically enhanced—

but now it was clear: even the face was made of metal.

“Click.”

Victor’s tongue clicked in frustration.

He sprinted across the open space, no time to wipe the sweat trickling into his eyes.

A wide, coverless battlefield like this—

was the worst kind of hell for him.

From the priest’s back, several mechanical arms extended, firing rounds at Victor in unison.

Sparks flew.

One hit the shoulder. Another, the knee.

Still, the damage was lighter than expected—he made it behind a nearby rock.

Victor checked the wound on his shoulder and pulled an EMP grenade from inside his jacket.

‘Only one grenade left.’

He already knew from experience that EMPs worked well against standard Machina priests.

This was his last hope.

He quickly slipped off his expensive stealth coat and activated its core.

A faint hum followed—then the coat turned invisible.

He tossed it beside the rock.

Like he was escaping while still wearing it.

The priest’s barrage immediately shredded the coat—ripping it to pieces.

Right then, Victor sprang out the opposite side and hurled the EMP grenade toward the priest, safety pin already pulled.

Then ducked back behind cover.

CRACKLE!

A surge of blue electricity erupted.

The EMP detonated, unleashing an electromagnetic pulse in every direction.

Victor cautiously peeked through the gap in the rocks.

The air was thick with dust—vision obscured.

"Did I get him?"

His hopeful voice echoed faintly.

Then the dust began to drift... and from within it, the priest’s silhouette emerged—completely unharmed.

Every weapon barrel on the priest’s back was now aimed directly at Victor.

"Shit!"

Victor ducked his head behind the rock just in time—

a deafening storm of gunfire slammed into it.

Tiny rock shards exploded outward, slicing his cheek.

“There’s gotta be a way out of this...”

Victor whispered the words like a mantra, forcing himself to stay calm.

Holding onto hope even in hopeless situations—

that’s what had kept him alive until now.

But this time... it felt different.

He had one submachine gun, barely loaded.

Meanwhile, the enemy had full-body cybernetics and complete ballistic protection.

He was woefully outgunned.

“If I make it out of this, I’m getting an internal heavy-weapon implant...”

Then something strange entered his vision.

A red fireball, streaking across the sky.

It looked like a meteor breaking through the atmosphere.

Maybe, just maybe, it would fall right onto the priest’s head.

Victor whispered a ridiculous prayer.

And by some absurd miracle, the fireball shifted trajectory—

zigzagging through the sky before diving sharply toward his direction.

‘Oh hell!’

Victor flattened himself tighter against the rock.

The fireball narrowly missed his head.

He could feel the heat brush past his face.

BOOM!

A blast so loud it tore at his eardrums slammed into him.

The rock shielded him, but the impact still rocked his body.

After a few seconds, the noise began to fade.

Victor slowly raised his head to assess the aftermath.

The scene in front of him was... impossible.

The priest had been blown to pieces.

Metal shards and mechanical parts scattered everywhere.

Small fires flared up around the blast zone.

And from within the wreckage, a figure walked out.

A woman in power armor.

The helmet hissed open, revealing a face Victor knew all too well.

“Scarlet?”

Victor muttered, stunned.

There was no mistaking it—it was her.

Her red hair stood out even inside the armor.

It clashed completely with her usual image as a netwitch.

“I heard you took the job... but I didn’t think you’d come in person.”

His voice carried a mix of relief and disbelief.

He glanced around, then offered Scarlet a genuine smile.

“Really... thank you.”

Just two words—

but they carried a hell of a lot.

Scarlet removed the helmet fully.

Her face was pale, and dark circles shadowed her eyes.

She must’ve gone through hell handling that jetpack power armor for ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the first time.

With an exhausted look, she gave him a small wave—I’m fine.

“That was nothing—”

Before she could finish her sentence, the ground trembled beneath them.

KUUUUNG.

The vibration started at the base of the tower and rapidly spread upward.

Victor realized it instantly.

“The tower’s collapsing!”

The metal connections holding the structure together began snapping, one after another.

The tower came apart like a giant stack of toy blocks.

CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.

Chunks of metal, the size of human torsos, rained down with gravity’s full wrath.

Some smashed into the ground near them—one hit just a few meters away, gouging deep into the floor.

“Goddamn it...”

Victor’s face tightened with tension.

His gut told him—

this wasn’t just old infrastructure giving out.

Someone was deliberately bringing the tower down.

Without hesitation, he grabbed Scarlet’s hand.

“We’ve gotta get out of here—now!”

With no time to think, Victor pulled her and ran—

putting as much distance between them and the crumbling tower as possible.

But human legs weren’t built for escaping disasters like this.

Click.

Sensing that, Scarlet slipped her helmet back on, grabbed Victor—and launched into the sky.

Jetpack engines roared as flames burst out.

She landed at what she judged to be a relatively safe distance—

just as the final segment of the tower gave way.

KWA-AAAAANG!

A massive shockwave from the last collapse slammed outward.

Victor instinctively wrapped himself around Scarlet, shielding her as they crouched down.

A moment later, the piercing noise began to fade.

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Dust billowed thick, cloaking the air.

Beneath the blackened sky, through the growing smoke—

Something moved.

At first, it was just a faint dot.

But it grew clearer.

A pair of glowing, white eyes—

giant and radiant.

Victor inhaled sharply.